Singapore’s mobile operators will take their 2G services off the airwaves from April 1, 2017, parting ways with a 20-year-old technology that has enabled users to make calls, send SMSes and even surf the Web.

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) today said it had approved the request from all three operators here – Singtel, StarHub and M1 – to cease the service.

Users who are using 2G-only phones will have to upgrade to newer models sold here, most of which already offer at least 3G, if not 4G, support.

Some users might also have to change their SIM cards to one supporting a 3G or 4G network. However, they can choose to continue with their current plans at no additional cost even after moving to the new networks.

The number of 2G-only subscriptions has been falling over the years, according to the IDA. In June 2011, there were more than 2 million such subscriptions. This has dropped to about 250,000 today, or just 3 per cent of the market.

The frequency spectrum currently used for 2G will likely be handed over to more advanced 3G and 4G services, a move that the government regulator said would allow for more efficient use of the scarce resource.

Already, some 2G spectrum has been re-used for the newer mobile technologies, which are more efficient in handling voice as well as data services.

Allying fears the move would mean poorer connections, the IDA said users will get adequate coverage from 3G and 4G networks.

All three of the country’s operators now offer more than 99 per cent nationwide coverage for their 3G networks. Outdoor street level coverage for 4G networks, which are still being upgraded, is at more than 98 per cent.

]]>http://www.techgoondu.com/2015/06/15/singapore-mobile-operators-to-switch-off-2g-services-by-2017/feed/3Hands-on: Alcatel Onetouch Flashhttp://www.techgoondu.com/2015/05/25/hands-on-alcatel-onetouch-flash/
http://www.techgoondu.com/2015/05/25/hands-on-alcatel-onetouch-flash/#commentsMon, 25 May 2015 00:00:40 +0000http://www.techgoondu.com/?p=36113
Following the launch of Xiaomi’s Redmi Note last year, a slew of smartphone makers have been jostling for a slice of the market for low-cost phablets.

China’s TCL Communication recently joined the fray with its Alcatel Onetouch Flash, which is now being sold by online retailer Lazada Singapore at S$188 with an 18-month warranty.

Like the Redmi Note, the Onetouch Flash sports a 5.5-inch, 1,280 x 760 pixels display with 8GB of storage that can be expanded via a microSD card. Both are dual-SIM devices that tout 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel rear and front cameras respectively.

The Alcatel Onetouch Flash is about 50 grams lighter than the Redmi Note, but is no slouch when it comes to build quality.

The well-made device feels solid in my hands, and it looks like it can withstand a knock or two. Its textured back cover offers a firm grip of the phone, especially during a run when your palms can get sweaty.

Because of its non-removable back cover, the phone’s dual SIM and microSD card slots are located along its edges, along with a volume rocker and a power button.

The device’s 720p IPS touch display offers good viewing angles, but there’s a yellowish tinge that makes colours less accurate than they should be. Text on webpages and menus appears sharp and crisp.

Like most Android handsets, the Alcatel Onetouch Flash comes with a custom interface that is less refined than that of some rival handsets. Both app and system icons on the device, for example, look a little rough around the edges.

That said, TCL has baked in some nifty gesture-based features, such as double-tapping on the screen to wake the phone, or drawing a “C” to activate the dialer while the device is in sleep mode. The gestures worked like a charm.

Powered by a 1.4 GHz MediaTek MT6592M Octa-Core processor and a Mali 450 GPU, the Android 4.4-based Onetouch Flash handles most productivity apps with ease. But with just 1GB of RAM, things will start to slow down once you run too many apps in the background.

The Alcatel OneTouch Flash is marketed as a ‘selfie-centric’ phone that comes with a slew of photo-enhancing tools.

However, its 5-megapixel front camera had trouble focusing on a subject (even in a brightly lit room), resulting in images that appear blurry. Its front camera fared better. Outdoor scenic shots looked vibrant, though you can detect some image noise when zooming in on a subject.

The brightest spot has to be the phone’s great battery life. During a recent business trip, I slotted two SIM cards – a data SIM from a foreign telco and a M1 SIM – into the Alcatel Onetouch Flash, which I used to reply to emails and messages, take photos and make calls. The phone’s 3200mAh battery lasted for more than a day before it needed a recharge.

All in, the Alcatel Onetouch Flash is a decent phone for its price, though the market is getting more competitive by the day with new rivals like the speedier Lenovo A7000 offering a more refined Android 5.0-based interface. TCL still needs work out a few kinks to lure more consumers to its devices.

At home, in the office and on the go, an orchestra of smart devices connected to a new Internet of Things is set to radically change the way people live in Asia-Pacific.

Whether they are collaborating with colleagues, seeing a doctor or watching a movie, a newly connected world will link more people and devices faster, crunch data better to understand trends more deeply and bring richer entertainment to homes.

At its core is a new, more robust way of connecting up millions of new devices, from home automation devices to wearable fitness trackers.

The networks that are making this possible are also changing, with upgrades planned for a flood of data to flow through the Internet in the years ahead. And Asia-Pacific is not far from the action.

By 2017, the Internet of Things will be one of the fastest growing segments in the region’s technology industry, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan. It is forecasting that US$59 billion will be spent on this new Internet of Things in Asia-Pacific by 2002.

While this creates immense opportunities for businesses to tap into, it also puts added pressure on businesses to innovate faster in order to keep up with the rapid adoption of all things digital, said Andrew Milroy, the senior vice president for Frost & Sullivan’s ICT Practice in Asia-Pacific.

Building smart cities

One of the biggest drivers of the new connected technologies would be smart city projects, in places such as Singapore. Indeed, the city-state is embarking on perhaps the world’s first smart nation rollout.

From weather sensors to smart cameras, it is seeking to provide timely information to city authorities as well as citizens to improve life in one of the world’s most well-connected urban environments.

Singapore also wants to roll out a heterogeneous network, one that automatically and seamlessly hooks up users based on the best network connections available, even if they are on the go. A trial is ongoing this year.

Other new network technologies, such as the upcoming 5G that will offer near instantaneous, low-latency access to data, will also change how people interact with information in a city.

Whether this is in the realm of education, banking and finance, transportation, public safety, healthcare or retail, the possibilities with an always-on and fast link is going to revolutionalise urban living in the years ahead.

Evolving enterprises

What this also means is that governments and companies have to be in the thick of the action. With opportunity comes an urgent need to upgrade capabilities.

In the enterprise, the digital business world means a number of new technologies will be crucial to keep connected with customers and improve efficiencies internally.

With a flood of information from customers, possibly from wearables or other embedded sensors in smart devices, a company has to know how to make sense of changing trends and issues.

An example here is the smart tooth brush. Would dentists one day be able to know how frequently a patient has brushed and if he has brushed correctly, to understand his situation better before he even visits the clinic?

This calls for Big Data and business analytics to better crunch the raw information into actionable intelligence to face complex business challenges. Information is the new gold, it’s been said, but the real value is in the sense that one can make from the data.

When large amounts of information, in particular, private information, is being collected, stored and transferred, one word that would keep turning up in IT leaders’ minds is security.

High-profile leaks of information in corporations in the past year have focused the industry’s efforts to harden their defences. In Asia-Pacific, there have been increased efforts to build up expertise as well as infrastructure, such as security operations centres, to protect against intrusions.

Changing lifestyles

These big changes on a macro scale ultimately affect the lifestyles of individuals, and it’s here that some of the most compelling technologies are catching the eye of late.

From the advent of 3D printing to wearables, people are getting access to information – and producing data – at an unprecedented rate. Consider a person on a jog in the park. The distance he travels and his heart rate during the jog are but two important elements that were previously not measured.

This enables him to keep track of his fitness, as many are doing today with fitness bands and smart watches. If he shares this information voluntarily with his insurance firm to show he is in the pink of health, it could even help secure a better deal in terms of premiums.

Besides Big Data, lifestyles will be also change with better connected homes. Already, broadcasters are moving into non-linear, over-the-top (OTT) video content delivered over the Net. In the next few years, expect more to embrace such new strategies as homes become better connected with high-speed broadband.

The advent of 4K TV will also be a major change in terms of the telecom, technology and media landscape.

Bringing four times the sharpness of existing Full HD programmes, the new programmes streamed online will change the way users consume entertainment content.

In producing 4K content, upscaled production and post-production capabilities, and higher latency and bandwidth is required.

With sales of 4K enabled screens gathering momentum, much rests on the availability of a content stream and enhanced communications infrastructure to further drive 4K adoption.

Keeping up with the advent of 4K for the masses, and the infocomm revolution brought about by megatrends such as IoT, OTT and TV Everywhere, CommunicAsia2015, EntepriseIT2015and BroadcastAsia2015, held from 2 – 5 June at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, will be Asia’s largest industry showcase of technological innovation impacting cities, enterprises and consumers.

Together the events will provide solutions for businesses to navigate the converged ecosystem of info-communications, broadcasting and digital multimedia.

M1’s coverage extends to 95 per cent of outdoor areas and most indoor areas in Singapore, the common definition for islandwide coverage here.

In pulling a rabbit out of a hat on Tuesday, the smallest operator may have surprised its bigger rivals with the pace of its rollout as well.

SingTel had been the first to provide such 4G+ services in Singapore and is still scheduled to offer coverage to about 85 to 90 per cent of outdoor areas by early next year. StarHub, meanwhile, has only said it would be ready nationwide some time next year.

The race for 4G+ may also have shown that operators are at least competing in terms of offering a faster lane on the cyber highway.

Earlier this year, when all three operators raised prices for 4G services, users were upset that they were getting a worse deal than before, with a lack of tougher competition.

Are you on a 4G+ service? Share your experience on the fast lane in the comments.

If you think Xiaomi has “spoilt” the Singapore market with its low-cost phones so far, it’s now bringing in even more spoilers with a 4G version of its popular Redmi Note smartphone.

The first Xiaomi device to feature 4G here, it costs a very competitive S$229. That’s just S$30 more than the original Redmi Note that cost S$199.

According to the mainland Chinese company, this 4G version was made specially for the Southeast Asian region, as the networks here are different from what is used in China.

Essentially, Xiaomi has swapped out a MediaTek processor and gone for a more common Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chip that is used in many low-cost 4G smartphones.

The new processor may not be the fastest around, but the Redmi Note 4G has 2GB RAM which should make the swapping of tasks and apps less of an issue.

Interestingly, the new phone is 10g lighter than the original. Okay, it’s not that you can practically feel that in the hand, but the lighter frame is still good to have considering much of the phone has remained the same.

You get a 5.5-inch screen with a modest 1,280 x 720 resolution that is common for phones at this price range.

Like the original Redmi Note, there’s only 8GB of onboard storage, so be prepared to fork out a little more – as low as less than S$20 for a 16GB card – if you want movies and music on the go.

Instead of cards with a maximum of 32GB, now you can stuff 64GB microSD cards in the new phone. That will delight users who regularly watch videos on the large screen.

For folks who want the latest software, the good news is that the new phone, now with the common Qualcomm chipset, supports Android 4.4 and Xiaomi’s handy MiUI interface.

Perhaps the biggest drawback is for those who are used to dual-SIM Xiaomi phones that let them use both a home and foreign SIM card when travelling. In the 4G version, they can only use one SIM card.

When will the Redmi Note 4G go on sale in Singapore? November 18. Hopefully, the company has enough stock this time, given the mad rush to buy one previously.

If you are seeking out a low-cost 4G phone, the new Xiaomi gadget is yet another option on a growing list that includes Asus’ Zenfone 5.

That starts from S$249 for a 1GB RAM version and S$269 for a 2GB RAM one, though both have a 5-inch screen that’s smaller than the Redmi Note 4G’s 5.5-incher.

Just 7.8mm thick and weighing 131.8g, the VEC 4G would be hardly felt in your pocket. Similarly sized and priced competitors like the ASUS Zenfone 5 weigh more at 145g.

The VEC 4G’s sharp corners and black outlook are reminiscent of Sony’s Xperia design language, but it comes with rounded sides that makes the device comfortable to hold, as long as one keeps clear of its edges.

Its glass fibre rear has a classy striped pattern that makes fingerprints on its glossy surface less obvious. The rear camera pinhole can be susceptible to scratches, however, as it is flush against the rest of the non-removable back plate.

Both power and volume control buttons are located on the right side of the phone and well-positioned for one-handed operation.

The VEC 4G comes with an admirable five-inch 720p (1,280 x 720) IPS screen. Colours are vibrant considering its price and do not shift when viewed off centre. Its more-than-sufficient maximum brightness ensures the display remains crisp even under direct sunlight.

The phone’s pixel density of 294 pixels per inch is perfectly acceptable. A full HD 1,920 x 1,080 screen resolution would have been better, but that would have affected its battery life for negligible improvements on a five-inch screen. This is one trade-off that I would accept.

What is harder to accept is the sacrifice of screen real-estate for the display of menu, back and recent apps buttons. While the buttons can be hidden to maximise the usable display area, they may not always appear in time when one needs them and become more of a hindrance.

Performance and Battery Life

The review unit was powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 running at 1.2GHz. This has been the go-to processor for many value phones and it did not disappoint.

General navigation was snappy, partly helped by ZTE’s decision to retain much of stock Android, in the process limiting the amount of bloat.

The phone did slow down when loading and closing apps, likely as its processing abilities were limited by the 1GB RAM. Or perhaps the software needs further optimisation. Every new version of Android strives to be more efficient, but an extra gigabyte of RAM would have been a quick way to quash such pauses.

The VEC 4G comes with 16GB of flash storage, with 13GB accessible to the user. It has no memory card slot of any kind, a piteous omission as prices of flash storage continue to fall while games and media files grow in size.

The phone comes with Dolby’s Digital Plus audio enhancement technologies. The dialogue enhancer, surround virtualiser and intelligent equalisers do bring audible improvements, more so with a good pair of earphones.

Ironically, users would not be able to fit too many games or movies in the phone to take full advantage of these enhancements.

The trio of ZTE phones also incorporate a “Family Mode” to cater to a clientele transiting from feature phones. It combines large tiles, fonts and easier access to important functions to make the jump to Android less daunting.

It also comes with FM radio, a feature increasingly omitted in today’s phones that remains of value to these customer segments.

The 2,300mAh battery got me through nearly eight hours of use, taking photos, surfing the web and watching a show along the way. Such numbers were good enough for day-to-day use, though I would have a portable battery ready just in case.

Camera

The VEC 4G comes equipped with an eight-megapixel rear and one-megapixel front camera. It comes with a range of HDR, panorama, beautify and smile shot modes that are becoming standard fare on smartphones today.

Standard daytime performance was acceptable, though there appeared to be some graininess in the shots either from over-sharpening or a lack of detail captured by the sensor.

HDR would usually be the most useful at capturing subjects in the presence of bright backlight. The end result was a strange mix of reduced contrast and increased graininess.

Panorama works as advertised, though shifts in white balance to accommodate the changing brightness around the NUS Town Green was obvious.

The beauty mode in practice applied an airbrush filter over my face to cover up the flaws. It did just enough to obscure my dark eye circles without going over the top. Definitely one for those with a penchant for selfies.

However, the smile shot was not quite as sensitive as I had expected. I literally had to force a wide smile for the shutter to fire. Not quite the natural look that I was hoping for.

Conclusion

The ZTE Blade VEC 4G appears to be a jack of all trades, offering decent aesthetics, performance and imaging quality without being exceptional in any of them. Considering its price, however, I could live with some imperfection.

Its closest competitor, the Asus Zenfone 5 LTE, sports a smaller battery. Neither of their cameras perform really well, but both phones run the latest Android 4.4 KitKat on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 processors.

The missing memory card slot may well tilt the stakes in favour of the Asus, as 13GB of available storage is not a lot by today’s standards. The Zenfone also comes with 2GB of RAM (the VEC 4G has 1GB) and uses Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 for extra screen protection.

However, the Zenfone has a smaller 2,110mAh battery. It is also chunkier and heavier. Whether snappier performance would be worth the sacrifice in battery life is a decision you’ll have to make.

]]>http://www.techgoondu.com/2014/09/17/goondu-review-zte-blade-vec-4g/feed/0Samsung Galaxy Ace 4 packs LTE for S$269http://www.techgoondu.com/2014/08/03/samsung-galaxy-ace-4-packs-lte-for-s269/
http://www.techgoondu.com/2014/08/03/samsung-galaxy-ace-4-packs-lte-for-s269/#commentsSun, 03 Aug 2014 01:37:08 +0000http://www.techgoondu.com/?p=31782
Samsung has held up 4G as a trump card in the new Galaxy Ace 4, its latest entrant into the now burgeoning good-and-cheap segment of the market at an affordable S$269.

The smartphone packs a 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) radio, one of the very few – if not the first – budget smartphones that will allow users to surf at speeds of up to 150Mbps. Given its rarity at this price point, this helps set this phone apart from rivals.

It also runs the latest 4.4.2 iteration of Android Kit Kat that includes an updated TouchWiz Essence user interface that long-time Samsung users would be familiar with.

Its remaining specifications are run-of-the-mill. A 1.2GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM is nothing to shout about, even at the budget segment. In comparison, a Redmi 1S packs a 1.6GHz Snapdragon quad core chip for $100 less.

The 4-inch WVGA (800×480) resolution screen pales in comparison to the 1,280 x 720 resolution screens found on the Redmi, Zenfone and other competitors. It is not an AMOLED screen found in many of Samsung’s higher-end phones either.

The camera is also a 5-megapixel affair at a time when its competitors are coming up with 8- and 13-megapixel shooters.

Because of its small screen, an 1,800mAh battery should offer the user enough mileage to last the day. At least, Samsung believes so.

Hardware-wise, Galaxy Ace 4 does not seem to have the edge over its less well-known competitors, unless a user is looking for a smaller phone or if he really needs 4G connectivity.

In a way, Samsung has its hands tied since putting higher-end components in cheaper smartphones will cannibalise sales on the higher-end Galaxy S line. With the money spent on marketing, Samsung might also find it tough to compete with the slim margins that rivals such as Xiaomi work with.

What’s the point of a very fast network without anyone being able to log on to it?

Well, SingTel’s zippy 300Mbps mobile broadband service using the Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) network technology now has a Huawei mobile router that hooks up users on the go.

Hailed as a “world first”, SingTel’s commercial launch of the enhanced 4G service yesterday came with Huawei’s E5786 mobile MiFi device, which creates a mobile hotspot to hook up phones, laptops and other devices.

The Huawei device will go for S$399 at SingTel shops. Signing up with the telecom operator for two years gets you the gadget at a discounted S$168.

Additional phone models, such as an LTE-A version of Samsung’s Galaxy S5, might make it to Singapore in the months ahead, as the mobile technology becomes more popular globally. But for now, the Huawei gadget is all you’ve got to get on the fast lane.

SingTel’s promise of 300Mbps speeds obviously is in the highest theoretical range, but it does finally bring 4G closer to where it is supposed to be – a long way up from previous 3G service.

SingTel’s LTE-A network is currently available at only Changi Airport, Singapore Expo and the area around Bugis MRT station.

Coverage is expected to also include the Central Business District, Orchard, Shenton Way and City Hall by the end of August. This will expand to half of the island by end-October and islandwide by the first quarter of 2015.

Ask any Singapore cellphone user if he is happy these days and chances are you will hear a litany of complaints. From frequent network outages to higher 4G prices, users here have had to contend with a frustrating experience when they peer into their little screens of late.

Thus when news broke last week of a government push for new players to enter the Singapore market, many consumers could be forgiven for hoping for a change.

Could the Infocomm Development Authority’s attempt to bring in a so-called mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) give competition a boost? These operators would not own their own networks but could instead pay existing players for the capacity to serve customers.

The upside is that such operators would not need to shell out the millions to build a separate network. They can quickly concentrate on areas such as marketing and customer service to differentiate themselves.

Problem is, MVNOs are not new to Singapore. Back in 2001, new challenger Virgin Mobile entered the market and lasted barely a year. Reason for its failure? The market was too saturated and hard to crack.

Today, with a penetration rate of more than 150 per cent, Singapore’s mobile market is even more saturated. If it was hard to force your way in more than 10 years ago, today it could be even harder.

Don’t forget that every dollar earned by such MVNOs would also partly go into the coffers of the existing operators, empowering them to compete even harder.

Thus it is not surprising that nobody has come in to challenge the Big Three of SingTel, StarHub and M1 recently. There are now a small number of MVNOs here, but they serve niche markets and cater to less than 1 per cent of the 8.4 million mobile lines here.

For any new entrant to have a chance, the regulator would have to come up with new rules to level the playing field. For example, contracts between operators would have to be made transparent and open, the same way with fibre broadband today. This would allow new players to negotiate a fair wholesale price from the big players to stand a chance to compete.

Such regulations could also be controversial. Existing players would ask why they have to carve up part of their network to share with a new competitor, and possibly at a pre-defined price. Considering that they have had to improve their networks of late, thanks to more stringent checks by the regulator, they will not be willing to let a rival ride on the investments they have made.

If there is a sign that things could change, however, it’s that competition seems to be have slowed in the past two years.

After fighting hard to sign up users with the first Apple iPhone’s launch a few years ago, operators have recently cut back on the amount of free Internet data for smartphone users.

StarHub will also be raising prices for 4G services – a scenario that was unthinkable previously because users expected competition to be stiffer and technology to be more efficient, not less.

If all three operators raise prices for 4G in future, can a new entrant do things differently? That’s what users will hope for. As existing players start thinking they can take things easy, an opening could present itself to challengers.

A broadband service provider, such as Viewqwest or SuperInternet, for example, could bundle a mobile service with its home broadband offering. That would bring much-needed choice to consumers. What the new players will need are market conditions to change drastically for them to have a fighting chance.

While Singapore’s smartphone users celebrate a rare consumer victory today, they should not be so quick to think that the temporary reversal of a 4G price hike will lead to free add-ons like caller ID in future.

Goodwill was probably topmost on the minds of StarHub executives yesterday, when they decided not to charge an additional S$2 for existing 4G customers still on contract.

This doesn’t mean it is no longer charging that additional fee. It just won’t do so, for now, for those customers who have said they did not know that 4G would be priced separately when they signed up.

It helped, of course, that the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) had weighed in with an investigation. In a statement yesterday evening, it said telcos shouldn’t change prices mid-way in a contract if they hadn’t been clear about price changes.

Besides StarHub, the regulator also got the other two players – SingTel and M1 – to agree not to raise 4G prices for those still on a contract. That surely pleased consumers.

Yet, in truth, there was little that IDA could have done with its given powers to force StarHub’s hand, had the telco decided to be hard-nosed about things.

A contract is a contract – you cannot say you didn’t read the fine print if you sold a house or bought a car and missed out on important details. StarHub doesn’t have to make this exception.

So, this comes back to goodwill, something the telco must have seen slipping away fast since news broke of its price hike last week. Indeed, while addressing customers’ concerns, StarHub’s statement late last evening stuck to its guns.

It said: “In regard to this [4G] promotion, we have been upfront with customers. Details of this service, including pricing and promotion expiry have been made available in our sales and marketing materials as well as on our website since its introduction in September 2012.”

This isn’t so much an issue about contracts or disclosure. It is more about competition, which consumers will worry is slowing down in Singapore.

In 2012, all three telcos slashed a generous 12GB of free bundled Internet data to as little as 2GB. When they launched 4G last year, they required re-contracting users to cut the free data limit down from the original 12GB.

Thus despite the little speed bump from the regulator this week, all three telcos could still happily charge extra for 4G in the months ahead. SingTel has said its current free promotion is up until a time it determines while M1’s offer lasts until the end of the year.

Eventually, all could offer a worse deal for consumers, who would have little choice to switch telcos in a less competitive market. This week’s events don’t change things for consumers in the long term.

Okay, maybe, just a little. Hopefully, they may make telcos think twice about taking the lead in raising prices in future. As StarHub has learnt, you face the brickbats first.

Much of the unhappiness with StarHub charging for 4G services has nothing to do with the seemingly small S$2 hike, but the surprise that it brought to customers.

They never expected to pay more for the faster speeds promised over existing 3G services. Like free incoming calls, the new service was not expected to cost extra, despite StarHub quite clearly stating that possibility in its terms when people sign up.

It’s not that consumers are daft, for not reading the fine print. They just don’t expect the cellphone market to be less competitive over time.

Free call minutes should increase, not decrease. Internet data bundles should be more generous, not less. Similarly, how can a service that is run on more efficient technology – 4G lets operators serve more users more easily – become more expensive over time?

All that points to the bigger issue – competition in the market. Besides getting upset, consumers have to ask if the keen competition among operators that had brought such great deals in the past is now being eroded, one way or another.

Many users will remember how all three cellphone operators in Singapore cut the free data bundles from a generous 12GB to as low as 2GB in 2012.

It wasn’t a surprise that they tore up the deal, especially when operators worldwide had to scale back to handle increasing amounts of data from smartphone-toting users.

What was worrying was how closely StarHub and M1 followed SingTel, which had almost half the market here, in changing the deal together. Suddenly, there was no alternative even if you wanted to change operators.

At that time, the government regulator turned a blind eye to what some may call the first signs of cartel-like behaviour among cellphone operators here.

Later, when all three of them rolled out 4G, they all had a new, similar deal. Buy a new phone or recontract with us and you have to cut your data bundle down from 12GB, to anything from 1GB to 4GB, depending on your plan.

This doesn’t mean they are changing your existing deal – you can still enjoy 12GB as long as you don’t recontract. Nothing wrong with that, except that there was little competition among the telcos. No operator was rushing in with a better offer.

Unfortunately, the next round of bad deals seems to be here now. StarHub has taken the lead to make 4G more expensive by charging an additional S$2 from June. And that’s a promotion rate too; you may have to pay the “standard” S$10 when it decides to stop the offer at a later date.

Smartly, SingTel and M1 have not immediately followed StarHub this time. SingTel says its offer is on until a date to be determined later, while M1 says its deal is up by the end of this year.

Consumers are right to worry that eventually all the operators will charge extra for 4G services, whether this is S$2, S$10 or even more. That just means a poorer deal over the years for consumers, even as technology has become more efficient and thus cheaper.

If the changes are a result of the market correcting itself after telcos went crazy and competed like never before a few years ago, then there’s little to argue against.

However, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has to examine if there is any cartel-like behaviour here. Are telcos fattening their profits while scaling back the competition? Are they trying to make over-the-top services so expensive to access to protect their own content offerings?

If that’s the case, the regulator may have to start bringing out the whip to keep these telcos in line. Right now, with a lack of stiffer competition, consumers are getting poorer deals than before.

SingTel users can expect a speed boost of 20 per cent when they go online with their mobile devices at crowded places, the telecom operator claimed today, as it readies the latest enhancements to its mobile network.

Singapore’s largest telco said it has found a way to tackle a constant bugbear in the city – congestion – while also cutting dropped calls by as much as 40 per cent.

The claims are probably the boldest yet from a telco here, as each has turned to more efficiently-run networks to attract users. A departure from the duel on theoretical speeds of the past, the three players in the country have gone to lengths in the past year to reveal engineering efforts aimed at improving the customer experience.

SingTel has gone a step further this time, by saying busy locations such as shopping malls, event and concert venues, and selected commercial and residential buildings will benefit from its new enhancements.

What’s behind this is a self-organising network technology, which it claims is able to detect any congestion and dynamically allocate network resources according to the changing patterns of customers in an area.

SingTel is also touting small cell technology, which basically lets a telco cover an area with more smaller cells, leading to a more densely-packed network that would cover small blind spots.

It won’t be the first to offer this, but it claims there will be better coverage as such cells are rolled out at places such as basements and underground carparks, where it is impossible to install conventional base stations and radio network equipment.

The telco, however, is yet to say when the improvements can be expected, or specifically where the most obvious improvements will be.

Chipmaker Qualcomm has come up with a new processor that it claims will make 4G phones cheaper than US$150, as telecom operators and phone makers look to the low- to mid-tier market in the year ahead.

The Snapdragon 410, released today, comes with a multi-mode, multi-band “world mode” LTE (Long Term Evolution) modem, which lets users connect up to LTE networks using different frequencies across the world.

It is also aimed squarely at users in developing markets such as China, who are looking for more affordable handsets to log on to new 4G networks that telcos have rolled out.

The Snapdragon 400 series is Qualcomm’s lower-mid tier range of processors, below its top-end Snapdragon 800 and Snapdragon 600 designs that are used in many more expensive smartphones and tablets.

The new Snapdragon 410 is, interestingly, the mobile chipmaker’s first “64-bit capable” processor, included as part of a chipset or package that supports many of the features that 4G users expect from their devices.

The hardware upgrades include a souped-up Adreno 306 graphics processing unit and support for 1080p video playback and up to a 13-megapixel camera.

StarHub will roll out Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) services next year with the promise of clearer calls, after making the first such call today on its live 4G network in Singapore.

The technology delivers high-quality voice calls over a 4G or LTE network, which is more often been used for its high-speed data access than phone calls now. Many operators still rely on older 2G and 3G networks to connect a mobile call.

VoLTE has been rolled out in South Korea and the United States, which are among the early adopters. More smartphones are expected to support the technology next year, according to StarHub, which claims to be the first to make such a call in Southeast Asia.

The telecom operator will also be able to use VoLTE to offers its HD Voice service over 4G.

Now only available to its 3G customers, the technology enables more speech information to be sent, resulting in natural-sounding and clearer phone conversations with reduced background noise.

StarHub also said its 4G customer base has “more than doubled” since the start of the year. Though late to the 4G game compared to rivals M1 and SingTel, it now also has islandwide street-level coverage in Singapore.

I wasn’t crazy about Samsung’s new small tablet – the Galaxy Note 8.0 – when I first laid my hands on it at its unveiling in February. Having used it for the past few days, however, I’ve grown to like it.

What has changed my mind? Mainly, the fact that it is very portable. The 4G model I’m using weighs 345 grams and can be easily held in one hand while surfing on the couch or at a cafe.

Perhaps I’ve missed my old Galaxy Tab 7.7, and got a little tired holding up a big Nexus 10, but I can see why people who have grown used to the iPad now look for smaller tablets.

The Galaxy Note 8.0’s design, as I brought up during a brief hands-on in February, will be a hit for fans of the Samsung Galaxy shape and form. With smooth, white plastic and faux metal highlights at the sides, the small tablet is a natural “upgrade” for folks toting Galaxy phones.

Samsung has clearly targeted this device at the “high-end” of small tablets, which seem to be getting cheaper and more modest hardware underneath the pretty plastic skins.

Unlike its main Android rival Asus, which has come up with cheaper 7-inch tablets, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0 comes with a slightly larger 8-inch screen, a handy 2GB RAM and 4G or Long Term Evolution (LTE) connectivity. There’s also a quad-core processor running at 1.6GHz.

And yes, you can make calls too from this, er, tablet. It will feel a little weird placing one of these 8-inch tablets next to your face and talking into it, but yes, you can if your SIM card supports voice calls.

You can, of course, make calls with a Bluetooth headset, but then, that’s one more gadget for the road, with the already big device. I doubt many users will be making calls from the Galaxy Note 8.0.

What they will very likely do is scribble and draw. The included stylus is a major differentiating feature for Samsung. Unlike, say, its larger Galaxy Note 10.1 or smaller Galaxy Note II, the Galaxy Note 8.0 feels perfectly-sized to hold in one hand and scribble away.

This is the size of the notepads I’ve been using all my career to scribble down notes at interviews and meetings, so the size just works perfectly. The stylus is pressure-sensitive, so if you feel like an artist, the Galaxy Note 8.0 is really nice to draw on.

What I find most useful about the S Pen is the ability to easily grab a slice of what you’re reading and share it with someone else.

If you press and hold the small button on the stylus, a lasso-like tool lets you select anything on the screen to be screen-captured and immediately sent off via e-mail, shared on social media networks or copied to the clipboard.

Seen an infographic that’s nice to share? Use the S Pen. Do the same if you read something interesting from a news report that you want to highlight. Instead of copying and pasting the entire Web address, grab a screenshot of the important paragraph with the S Pen and send it to a friend. It’s easier.

I also like it that the tablet knows when you take the S Pen out. Okay, there’s a rather cutesy sound when you do so, but besides that, the tablet also automatically launches a menu that you might use.

The icons here let you access, say, the S Note memo app and S Planner calendar app, both full-featured apps that will be useful for those new to Android.

What don’t I like? The lack of a Super AMOLED screen still upsets me, though I know I’m a minority and owner of a Galaxy Tab 7.7, which had a Super AMOLED display years before.

To be fair, the LCD screen on the Galaxy Note 8.0 is pretty bright and colours aren’t that horrible. But once you’ve seen Super AMOLED on a Samsung, you’d expect the best products from the Korean electronics firm to have Super AMOLED.

I’m not sure if the omission of the very bright and high-contrast Super AMOLED is down to cost or manufacturing process, but it is one thing that marks down the Galaxy Note 8.0 from an unqualified recommendation.

Still on the screen, the 1,280 x 800 resolution is also not too bad, and text looks sharp when you read e-books on the tablet, but it’s telling that it is nowhere as sharp as, say, current top-end smartphones. Samsung’s own Galaxy S4 boasts a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution in a smaller 5-inch screen.

What also bothered me a little was the slight lag that rears its head ever so infrequently. With all the stuff that Samsung has packed into the Galaxy Note 8.0, there’s bound to be some performance hit sometimes.

This is not to say the experience is poor – almost all the time, things were zippy for me – but geeks who compare carefully will find the occasional jerkiness, say, when moving from an app back to the home screen.

To be sure, geeks who want a “pure” Android experience will likely go for an Asus Nexus 7. Though it’s got a smaller screen, it’s cheaper at S$499 for a 32GB, 3G model and it will get the latest operating system updates from Google.

Perhaps because of its stylus apps, the S$788 Galaxy Note 8.0 comes with Android 4.1.2 instead of the current 4.2.2. Samsung’s apps also take up space, leaving less than 10GB of the 16GB onboard. Fortunately, you can add a microSD card for movies and music.

I’d recommend the Galaxy Note 8.0 for folks who are looking for a top-end “mini tablet” that’s different from what’s out there, namely cheap Android tablets and Apple’s iPad mini, which has an operating system that looks increasingly dated despite new features unveiled recently.

The Samsung device has drawing capabilities that are unique to it, plus the 4,600mAH battery easily lasts more than a couple of days, according to my limited usage (only surfing and reading e-books, no games).

Despite some issues which may deter hardcore geeks, the Galaxy Note 8.0 has a great out-of-box experience for many users new to Android. If you can get it at a lower street price or through a contract subsidy from telecom operators, the new Samsung tablet is well worth a look.

Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia are looking to run 4G services on airwaves that will be freed up when analog TV broadcasts are switched off in the region by 2020.

While the move is aimed at re-allocating precious bandwidth in the sky, the use of a common 700MHz frequency band in the region could enable travellers to easily “roam” with their smartphones and log on to local cellphone services to make calls or surf the Web.

Going forward, the use of the new spectrum can “meet growing demand for mobile broadband, improve regional mobile roaming, and provide more competitive mobile broadband services,” said Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim today at the opening of the imbX trade show.

This is the clearest sign of governments in the region giving bigger chunks of the airwaves to mobile broadband services, such as 4G. These frequencies once reserved for analog TV will likely be allocated to mobile operators when the old broadcasts are switched off by 2020.

The quality of the frequency block matters as well. Signals carried on the lower 700MHz range can penetrate walls and buildings more easily than current 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz bands used for 4G in Singapore.

This means better coverage. It is the same reason why 2.4GHz Wi-Fi usually can pass through more walls at home than 5GHz Wi-Fi, which uses a higher frequency band.

In the United States, some broadcast TV operators had resisted the “re-farming” of frequencies once reserved for their broadcasts, claiming that it affected the quality of their transmissions.

That’s unlikely to happen in Singapore, where almost all homes are wired and free-to-air TV can be delivered via a cable point, phone jack or fibre connection.

At the same time, more people are using their cellphones’ Internet link to watch TV or listen to radio, instead of tuning in to broadcasts over the air. National broadcaster MediaCorp had cut digital radio broadcasts in 2011, preferring to deliver its programmes over mobile networks.

Most countries still keep a part of the airwaves for broadcast TV and radio. This is important for emergencies, when over-the-air signals are still the easiest and fastest way to reach out to a lot of people over a large area.

There was a time when subscribers didn’t care how a network was run, as long as they could make calls or get their e-mails on the go. Today, however, with users often upset over clogged-up 3G networks and spotty 4G coverage, telcos seem to have upped their game publicly.

The latest news comes from StarHub today. It will blanket 95 per cent of the island with its 4G signals in the next four months, joining rivals M1 and SingTel in providing nationwide coverage for the fast mobile Internet service.

Besides 4G, the “green” camp also said today that it will improve the quality of its older 3G service. By the end of this year, it will install 40 per cent more base stations as part of its efforts to increase capacity, boost in-building coverage and reduce its dropped call rate.

StarHub also claims it is the first in Singapore to use the 900MHz spectrum for its 3G services. A bigger chunk of the airwaves means it can carry more data over thin air.

This is the kind of information that telcos were previously shy to share. They didn’t want rivals to know what they were doing, to begin with. Plus, they did not want their network equipment suppliers to be all geared up to sell them stuff – at a high price.

Yet, the battleground has changed dramatically in recent years.

Consumers now want to know exactly what their telcos are doing to make things better when they tune in to a music streaming service on their way to work or while catching up on e-mail while sitting at a cafe.

So what if they don’t understand everything that’s being done – they want to see something done. Many are committed to two-year subscription contracts, after all. If telcos can sign on thousands more users as Singapore’s population increases over the years, they should jolly well improve the networks just as quickly.

All this unhappiness began, of course, with the poor service in the past few years.

The recent arrival of 4G services, run on a separate network and using a different part of the spectrum, has made surfing on the go slightly better. Yet, few users will so quickly forget how congested the 3G networks were – and often still are – when they try to get on to the Internet.

Thus, telcos coming out to publicise their network upgrades is a positive step forward. For users, it is another way to gauge how much effort a telco is spending to provide a good experience on the go, besides just looking at the theoretical top speeds on offer.

StarHub has actually been slow to talk. M1 has been providing lots of details on its plans on femtocells, for example, to offload some of the cellphone network traffic, while SingTel recently became the first to double 4G speeds to a max of 150Mbps.

Ultimately, the user experience is still key, despite all the publicity.

Since the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) fined all three telcos for their poor 3G service coverage last year, they have wasted no time in improving their services.

Perhaps it’s time the regulator upped its standards. Besides requirements in coverage and rate of dropped calls, it’s time for telcos to meet a minimum, realistic level of service for Internet links on the go as well. After all, the phone is increasingly used to go online besides making calls.

It’s got a metallic case, it’s slimmed down drastically and it has the great camera as before. Say hello to Nokia’s new Lumia 925, which was unveiled hours ago as the follow-up to the flagship Lumia 920.

The new phone is lighter (139 grams versus 185 grams) and skinnier (8.5mm, down from 10.7mm). Most importantly, it now has a metallic case instead of the polycarbonate on the older Lumia range. Perhaps the Nokia folks have seen the wows that the HTC One has attracted?

Well, one thing’s for sure. The Lumia 925 is not going to suddenly draw in the crowds. It will be a great phone, but won’t shock people out of the default choice of Android or iOS.

The smooth Windows Phone operating system that the Lumia range runs will surely impress those who don’t have a lot of apps already invested on the top two OSes. It will be a tougher sell, though, to ask existing users to switch.

Nokia has smartly – or stubbornly, depending on how you see it – stuck to a formula here. The Finnish phone maker has taken the best of the Lumia 920 and slimmed it down into the Lumia 925. That’s not a bad thing, since one common complaint against the Lumia 920 was its heft.

One thing to note though: the change to a metallic cover means that you need a separate one to charge the phone wirelessly. Previously, the built-in wireless charging on the Lumia 920 was an important selling point.

Otherwise, the same hardware that impressed before should impress now. The Lumia 925 has the company’s 8.7-meg lens that’s assisted by an optical image stabiliser, which helps avoid blur images. The camera is also one of the best to be mounted on a phone.

The specs that matter, the Lumia 925 has them. There’s 4G built in, a reasonably large 4.5-inch screen (at 1,280 x 768 resolution) and also near-field communications for tap-and-go wireless services.

The dual-core 1.5GHz processor may seem long in the tooth compared to quad- and octa-core monsters these days, but Windows Phone should run pretty well on it, as it has before with the older Lumias.

Actually, the problem with the Lumia 925 will be the same as before – getting people to believe that Nokia is back. And of course, that Windows Phone is a real alternative. It actually is, but people are often too lazy to find out about it or too used to their existing phones to switch.

Well at least the price is attractive. The Lumia 925 will cost about €469 (S$755) – compared to almost S$1,000 for a top Android phone – when it goes on sale in Europe and China in June, followed by the United States.

UPDATE: The Lumia 925 is going for S$799 in Singapore, Nokia’s representatives have told us.

Tablet and PC users who want a pay-as-you-use 4G connection can now buy prepaid cards from M1, which unveiled Singapore’s first such service earlier today.

An S$18 micro- or nano-SIM card provides up to 1GB of data for a month, which could translate into hundreds of webpages or just dozens of high-rez videos on YouTube, depending on the content consumed.

The prepaid service will appeal to those who may want to give M1’s islandwide 4G network a try before signing up with a monthly subscription. In comparison, committing to a two-year deal means paying less each month – S$24 for 2GB and S$32 for 5GB.

The new 4G plan will connect at up to 75Mbps, on paper. Typical speeds, however, are between about 10Mbps and 21Mbps, according to the telecom operator.

By being the first to the game, M1 will hope to establish itself as a leader in 4G. In September last year, it had been the first to announce a nationwide 4G service, beating rivals SingTel and StarHub to the game.

Since then, all three telcos have been bringing in 4G phones, such as the Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note II, and most mid- to high-end phones this year are expected to support faster 4G networks.

Sony seems to have gotten its game together like never before, and that includes shipping its flagship phone on time to steal a march over rivals.

The Xperia Z, possibly the best phone from Sony in a long while, is going on sale in Singapore on March 1, for a rather expensive but not unexpected S$988. Impatient buyers can pre-order from February 15 at Sony stores or telecom operators.

From what we’ve seen so far (read our hands-on test), the Xperia Z is a well-designed and feature-packed gizmo that can take on and possibly beat popular models from HTC and Samsung.

It certainly doesn’t lose out in the hardware department. With a 5-inch screen displaying Full HD resolution, a 1.5GHz quad-core chip and 2GB RAM, it connects to speedy 4G or LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks.

It also betters HTC and Samsung offerings with a 13-meg camera, which promises to bring the Japanese electronics giant’s expertise on digital imaging to the small device.

One more thing that might attract users: a waterproof frame that lets you carry the phone to the pool side without worry. At launch, the Xperia Z will also come in black, white and purple.

Is S$988 a little expensive? The Android phone is certainly not cheap, but the cost is within the range of high-end models from Samsung, for example.

Has Sony pulled a winner out of the hat? Well, this phone will be out for pre-order just as the hype begins with new phones to be launched in the yearly Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February. That’s pretty fast, considering that the phone was unveiled only last month.

However, Sony will have to contend with the might of Samsung, now the largest phone maker in the world, in terms of marketing and advertising.

Geeks will no doubt be interested in the Xperia Z, but the bigger market of fashion-conscious “lifestyle” users will have to be convinced Sony is back, amid the Korean wave.